Master List of Uncategorized Stuff
The Blue Palace is a mansion located at Summerwall, the estate of the Grand Duchess of Hallerton. It was built in the second century BCR, and is modeled after the "women's houses" common to palaces and monarchical residences in Ayuma. The Blue Palace is the official residence of the Duke Consort of the Grand Duchess; although usually the Duke Consort lived with the Grand Duchess in the main estate building, it was seen as a refuge for any male relatives of the family line. For instance, King Naloma II of the Kingdom of Garmoaa, whose mother had been a niece of a previous Grand Duchess, lived in the Palace after being deposed. The building itself is of Upper Continental Architecture, with many of the rooms furnished according to the fashion trends at the time of their most notable resident. Although portions are open to the public, it is still considered to be an official noble residence. Every country worth its salt finds a way to use superpowers for something, but few took it to the extreme that the Kingdom of Dorland does - the Royal Service has always served alongside the Royal Dorlese Army. * Amplifiers have the ability to increase the power of other people's powers, which allows for all sorts of things. * Conversely, nullifiers can remove the threat of the other side's powers. * Healers are fairly obvious - although the process is complicated and lengthy enough that you can't have a whole army shrug off its injuries, you can make sure that officers or elite troops don't die of their wounds. * Shielders - although they can normally only produce forcefields large enough to cover themselves, with the abovementioned amplifiers they can shield whole troop formations. * Teleporters can not only sneak in and attack specific targets, they can move information quickly. * Shapeshifters and invisiblers make great spies and scouts. And so on. The real key is getting the disparate groups to work in harmony Peter Morris leaves Quanzee, and moves to Hallerton where he helps form the second superhero league. Then he dies of cancer, which is a major health risk for people with his power. Caribeth Winderville changes her name and works for a few years for Baron Caldersfield, then gets married and has kids. Frederick Allen becomes a scholar of some sort. Mikela Danvers and Stacey Weber reconcile, get married, and adopt a couple of children (who are the characters of a story of their own.) Craig Singleton is allowed to leave the country (the king basically tells him he'd best move somewhere with no extradition to avoid unpleasant questions) and eventually works for the government to help establish their version of the Royal Service. Cole Riggs keeps fighting as Cloudburst for a few years until he decides it's time to hang up the cape. The Institute of Secular Togetherness was an attempt to make an explicitly atheist alternative that kept what was best about religion (community and charity) while rejecting the bad. In practice they got plenty of the bad anyways - they do have a tendency to be judgmental of outsiders (considering them too superstitious and dogmatic) while being all too willing to argue over whatever minor disagreements they have. It is generally believed that no one with the power of teleportation has ever teleported out of the planet's gravity well. In fact, it did happen once, thousands of years ago, when a teleporter got help from a power magnifier. It was still a lucky shot and it's unlikely that anyone could do it again. The reason that no one knows about it is that there aren't any telescopes powerful enough to see a human body on the surface of the nearest moon. Looks like someone didn't know that space is a vacuum! Cremation is by far the most common means of disposing of the deceased. Urns may be put into memorial houses or kept by family, although scattering ashes is (in Dorland at least) quite rare. Some families have large, intergenerational shrines with the remains of their ancestors. Chili-pepper worshippers? Count me in! Sure, me too. At least, a sect centered around extremes in food in general. Spiciest, most bitter, fermented horse milk, things that would kill you if prepared incorrectly sort of extremes? Yup. Eating something like fugu would be the ultimate act of devotion. Haven't done that yet. In the mean time, what about something like kumis? Southern Coast University in Gilbatisk (the Blue Raiders) is one of the largest public universities in southern Dorland. They have one of the best criminal justice programs in the country, and the NIA and other major law enforcement agencies recruit heavily there. Sopresan Provincial University in Spring City (the Ranchers) started out with a focus on agricultural science, but has branched out greatly. They have the best computer science and engineering department in the region. Hartlin College in Hartlin City (the Gophers) is small and has a very regional student and alum base. * There is a nation in the north, that once had a queen with ice-based superpowers. She mostly used them to make it impossible to invade. She wasn't much of a singer, though. * There was a religious ritual among the Enarese. It involved making a pyramid structure with humans stacked on the bottom, goats and other livestock on the next layer, dogs above them, cats above them, and birds and other small animals on the top. People would also donate tools, weapons, jewelry, or other important objects to the pile. The whole thing would be soaked in oil and then lit on fire. * For a brief period, one of the odder fashions in Dorland involved taking old items of clothing and modifying them to wear on a different part of the body, e.g. skirts made out of old t-shirts, or hats with pieces of shoes attached to them. Using mind control powers to blow up ironclads The superhero Clockmaster used super speed, trickery, and a lot of luck to convince people he could manipulate time. (No one actually can in my setting, although they don't actually know that for sure.) Of course, it all eventually backfired somehow, and he died embarrassingly. * Something that makes the user imposing, but not actually powerful, such as a fear aura or illusions * "Mob-affecting powers", like the ability to incite witch hunts directed at others or a "popularity aura" * Powers that make the user legitimately impressive, but only in situational circumstances; the classic "I get stronger, the less people are watching" would be a good fit, or something like "I'm good at fighting an opponent for the first time, but successive fights against the same person get worse and worse"